The present invention relates to machines for the making of cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos or other rod-shaped smokers' articles which contain substitute, reconstituted and/or natural tobacco. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for making composite fillers for assembly with cigarette paper or other suitable wrapping material into continuous rods which are thereupon subdivided into rod-shaped articles of desired length. Still more particularly, the invention relates to improvements in a method and an apparatus for making tobacco fillers (this term is intended to embrace fillers containing substitute, reconstituted and/or natural tobacco) which contain several types of tobacco.
It is already known to make tobacco fillers from two different types of tobacco in such a way that filler portions containing a first type of tobacco alternate with filler portions which contain a second type of tobacco, as considered in the longitudinal direction of the rod-like filler. For example, German Offenlegungsschrift No. 24 45 856 discloses a method and an apparatus for making a rod-like filler by forming a series of spaced-apart batches from a first type of tobacco in the peripheral recesses of a suction wheel, by depositing such batches in the form of a row on an air-permeable belt conveyor, and by showering tobacco particles of a second type into the spaces between the batches. The filler is thereupon trimmed to remove the surplus of tobacco and the thus obtained finished filler is draped into a web of cigarette paper. The lengths of batches of tobacco of the first type and the lengths of the spaces between such batches are selected in such a way that, when the cigarette rod (wrapped filler) is subdivided into rod-shaped articles (e.g., plain cigarettes) of unit length, each discrete article contains tobacco of the first type as well as tobacco of the second type.
A drawback of heretofore known methods and apparatus for the making of composite fillers is that the making of such fillers cannot be regulated with a required degree of accuracy. Thus, it can happen that the batches which contain the first type of tobacco are too close to each other or too far apart. Furthermore, it can happen that the trimming operation results in removal of excessive quantities of tobacco particles of the first or second type. Still further, it is not possible to properly monitor the ratio of tobacco particles of the first type to tobacco particles of the second type and/or to undertake corrective steps if the ratio is unsatisfactory except by arresting the machine with attendant huge losses in output.
The reasons for using several types of tobacco for the making of a tobacco filler are numerous. For example, it may be desirable to produce plain cigarettes wherein tobacco particles with lower nicotine content are closer to the end which is inserted into the smoker's mouth. Also, a maker of cigarettes may wish to use substitute tobacco in a certain portion of the tobacco-containing part of a filter cigarette, cigar or cigarillo. Still further, it may be desirable to introduce lower-grade tobacco into selected portions of the filler so as to occupy certain portions of tobacco fillers in finished plain of filter cigarettes, cigars or cigarillos.